Is my buyer overreacting?

[Blueberries123]

Hello everyone,

Asking for advice, I have a FTB asking for an asbestos survey to be carried out inside my 1964 maisonette, just a week before we are due to exchange (we are going in a new build and have a strict deadline)

Since finding out that the artex ceilings may contain it, my buyer has been worried and has been thinking about pulling out.
To me it would be quite obvious that it does indeed contain asbestos due to being a 60’s build..

Would you agree to the survey being done, given that this may leave me with damaged ceilings for future viewings if she pulls out?

I think your buyer is being daft and there’s much bigger things to worry about when buying a house. I bought my first property last year, a 80s bungalow, which had popcorn ceiling in every room. It never occurred to me to have the ceilings tested, I just had them skimmed over (not the whole house, the kitchen and bathroom still have it). Honestly no big deal. Surely it’s to be expected with older properties?! 🤷🏼‍♀️

The buyer is either over-reacting because they are genuinely, but irrationally scared, or looking for money off / get out excuse.

Skimming over an art ceiling doesn't make it any safer than painting over it - in fact it can make it less safe as it hides it is there and a future builder may bash through it without knowing.

The main reason to skim them over, and the reason I had mine done, is because they are not fashionable / ugly.

Asbestos is as has been said rather common in buildings, and generally harmless if un-disturbed - I have two relatives who died from asbestos related disease, but both worked extensively with it, one in an asbestos factory and one stripping asbestos from boilers on ships, both before modern health and safety came to pass.

The risk to a householder is minute and the risk to a professional tradesman or keen DIYer taking correct precautions is also very small indeed.

Our buyer pulled out and asbestos in the ceilings was one of the reasons. The house was built in 1958. What did they expect?

You will have to declare it to the next buyer that there is asbestos in the ceiling (if it is confirmed that there is). My buyer pulled out because we had traces of asbestos in our roof tiles. I had a roofer take a drone footage to show the roof was in perfect condition and also take photos and moisture sample showing no signs of damage or leaks within the interior. This still wasn’t enough for them, first time buyer also. I wouldn’t pay for the survey, they can do it for their own piece of mind.

We were expected to do this and a fire risk assessment (it was a flat). The request came just before exchange too. They don’t cost much or take long.

Some interesting reading about asbestos exposure here:
https://cancerchat.cancerresearchuk.org/f/pre-diagnosis-signs-symptoms/72742/possible-asbestos-in-home-has-been-disturbed-not-realised

Expert on asbestos and hazardous materials - owns a consultancy and acts as an expert witness in asbestos-related court cases
Talked about how much asbestos there is in the environment anyway - it was used in pretty much all government buildings (hospitals, schools etc) for many years. It’s in car brake pads which gets turned to dust in the atmosphere near roads. 60% of people in the UK have asbestos fibres in their lungs. If you remove the rural areas and look at the major cities, 100% of people have asbestos in their lungs. Yet only 2000 people a year die due to asbestos. So this dispels the “one fibre will kill you” rubbish. Studies have been done to determine the level of exposure under which it’s “highly improbable” that you’d get an asbestos-related illness (25 fibre years/ml). The HSE have found that scraping off an artex ceiling whilst breathing in the dust generates between 0.01 and 0.1 fibres/ml. Assume the worst case of 0.1 fibres/ml. If you did this for one year constantly, you’d expose yourself to 0.1 fibre years/ml. If you did it for 10 years, you’d have a total exposure of 1 fibre year/ml. * Therefore you’d need to scrape artex ceilings constantly (“8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 46 weeks a year”) for 250 years, breathing in all the dust, with no mask or extraction, to reach a total exposure of 25 fibre years/ml. The real risk we (or our children) have been exposed to is “absolutely nothing at all - no risk at all”.

UPDATE: we decided to give a sort of ultimatum. We offered the washing machine which she was interested in and a small contribution towards any updates she wants to do. In exchange we asked she instructs her solicitor to proceed with exchange of contracts asap. She accepted and will carry out all surveys after completion